Aha! A light bulb moment.

In Donald Duck magazines, a light bulb flashes up above a character’s head when they get a brilliant idea. Theorists define an aha moment as “an instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear.” Others of us simply say, “It just popped into my head.”

Aha moments come in all sizes. There are mind-changing moments, for instance when authoritarian leaders reveal their true nature and are stripped naked in front of the TV cameras of the world as people stop cheering them and start wondering, “Whatever did we see in them?”

There are other defining moments that bring people together during natural disasters, or during rescue missions to bring astronauts safely back to Earth or trapped miners back to the surface. These are moments that touch us and show us what we can be.

Most of all, there are people like Mandela and Tutu and King who have educated us with their words and made us better citizens.

Although not close to these proportions, I do have my moments. Take my writing, for example. When an article or a story suddenly falls into place as the last unexpected line leaps out of my fingertips and I know that the story is complete, there is an near-aha-experience. Maybe not of a light bulb magnitude, but I’m delighted and astonished every time it happens and I can’t stop smiling.

I remember my wife asking James Balog about his photography last night. He said that when he can’t sleep, he looks up at the ceiling and think about what he can do for his project. In doing so, he tries hard to get that flash of inspiration. Sometimes ideas come. A lot of the time, they don’t.
I suppose, that’s alright.